Christina's POV

Slap!

My head snapped to the side, vision blurring, skin burning as if someone had pressed a brand into me. For a heartbeat, I couldn't even process it.

My fated mate just hit me.

Three minutes ago, I'd been stupidly daydreaming about curtains, rugs, chandeliers, wondering how I would make the ridiculously expensive pack house look less like a museum screaming I have more money than personality.

Two minutes ago, I'd knocked over a framed photograph in his bedroom. Just an accident. A picture of my sister smiling like the golden saint she always was.

Now, blood rushed in my ears as the sting on my face spread, sharp and humiliating. The boy I once believed was my forever had just turned me into the villain of his story.

Akira roared inside me, claws scraping at the walls of my chest.

Rage, betrayal, heartbreak swirled together until I could barely breathe.

Niall's lips pressed into a tight line."You broke the only photo I had with Beatrice. Your jealousy makes me sick."

"Are you fucking insane?" I gritted my teeth.

"No, you're the insane one!" he roared."I already agreed to marry you,what more do you want? Beatrice had to leave because of you!Because you exposed our mate bond and forced me to accept you!"

The hatred in his eyes cut deeper than the slap.

"She was your sister! And now you're jealous? You won't rest until every trace of her is erased, will you?" He said in anger as he shoved me backward, into the coffee table.

Sharp pain sliced through my palm as I landed on the shattered glass frame.

Blood smeared across Beatrice's perfect smile.

How poetic.

My cheek throbbed. My hand was bleeding.But nothing hurt more than the realization that my so-called mate had never loved me.

"It wasn't me," I said, one final attempt at reason."I never forced this mate bond on you. I never asked her to leave."

Technically speaking, I understood why someone might blame me.

On my eighteenth birthday, I shifted and realized Niall was my fated mate.Stupidly, I wrote it all down in my diary.I planned to tell him when he returned from his business trip. If he couldn't accept me, I was prepared for rejection.

But Beatrice found my diary and made it public.

Privacy was apparently a foreign concept to her. She told everyone in The Crescent pack about my diary.

I was dragged out and shamed as the pathetic spare who dared reach above her station for her perfect sister's Alpha.

Then Beatrice graciously left for abroad,leaving behind a letter saying she'd "discovered my secret" and decided to "let go," to "let him be mine."

My sister was about as generous as a reality TV contestant with someone else's money.

And I? I was the villain who drove away The Crescent Pack's perfect princess.

To my family,I'd been bumped to the starting lineup after years on the bench,so I should've been grateful.My parents didn't truly care which daughter married Niall, only that the pack alliance was sealed.Even if Niall had literally ripped my heart out, my parents would've handed him napkins to clean up.

It was as if my parents had always hated me. No matter how much I outperformed Beatrice in training, they always made excuses for her and found fault with me. I was bitter, ungrateful, someone who couldn't appreciate her dear sister.

My fingers clenched around the engagement ring.This pathetic symbol of our joke mateship.

Hot tears blurred my vision. I blinked them back fast.

I bolted for the door.Had to get out before the tears came.

Niall grabbed my wrist to stop me. "Clean it up."

"What?"I stared him in disbelief, needing to confirm I'd heard him right.

"You broke the photo frame. Clean up the pieces." Ice-cold command.

Too bad I never was good at taking orders.

"No." I lifted my chin. Zero compromise.

His jaw clenched. "You sure you want to do this, Christina?"

"Yes. I said no." I stared him down without flinching.

If love meant grinding my self-respect into cigarette ash, then fuck love.

The air between us snapped, tension rising like a storm. He leaned in, fury blazing. "Last chance. Disobey me, and I'll end this bond right here—"

"We are over," I cut in.

Shock froze his face.

For a moment,the air went still.

He hadn't expected me to actually say it.

I yanked my arm free, breath hitching as hope for escape flared—only for him to seize me again, his grip bruising, his eyes burning with something close to hatred.

"This is on you, Christina!" Niall snarled, his tone that of a sworn enemy rather than the mate fate had chained me to.

"I, Niall Granger, Alpha of the Frostpelt Pack, reject—"

"Shut the hell up!" I snapped.

If anyone was ending this bond, it would be me.

My gaze locked onto his, unflinching.

"You don't get to reject me. I reject you, Niall. Now accept it."

The world seemed to crack in half.

Akira howled inside me, a keening wail of loss, while searing agony tore through my chest as the bond unraveled thread by thread.

His jaw tightened,but he forced the words past clenched teeth.

"I accept your rejection. Now clean up your mess and fix the damn photo."

My hands shook as I picked up the shattered frame, shards biting into my skin, my blood smearing across the glass. I tore the picture down the middle, ripping his face away from my sister's, as if severing every last tie.

Without hesitation,I swung my hand and slapped him hard across that infuriatingly handsome, arrogant face. The crack echoed between us.

I leaned in, letting him see the fire in my eyes.

"Now," I hissed, "we're done.."

The silence was absolute.

My palm stung, but oh, the satisfaction almost dulled the pain in my chest.

Niall staggered back, shock flashing in his eyes.

It wasn't from pain, but from realizing the docile girl he'd despised no longer existed.

I smiled coldly. "Goodbye, Niall. Go worship your shrine to Beatrice."

And I walked out of that suffocating hell, head high.

I would rather drown in my own tears than let him see one more drop.

When I reached the parking lot, the cold night air hit my face, but overwhelming pain crashed over me like a tidal wave.

Fuck, no one ever told me that breaking the mate bond would be this excruciating.

It felt like having my heart sliced up and served to Hannibal Lecter.He'd probably enjoy it with a nice chianti and some fava bean sauce.

I curled up in the driver's seat, cold sweat streaming down my face.

Akira lay weakly inside me,whimpering,"It's so fucking strange!Like someone reached into my gut and tore something out with their fist."

I couldn't agree more.

I wanted to find my mother,she would definitely know how to ease this kind of pain.

Or maybe any creature in pain instinctively thinks of their mother.

As I hesitated between sending a mind-link or making a call, my phone vibrated.

My eyes were so blurry that I fumbled to swipe and answer.

"Chrissy, you must be insane!" My mother screamed."How dare you humiliate Niall like this! The pack alliance is ruined!"

"Mom, he rejected me," I said weakly. "As in, formally. Also, he hit me. So there's that fun detail."

"He... what?" For once, she sounded stunned.

My dad's voice cut in, "Don't be dramatic. After everything Beatrice sacrificed for you? You will apologize to Niall immediately and beg him to marry you, or you're no longer welcome in our territory!"

He hung up before I could respond.

I stared at my phone in bewilderment, my father's words echoing in my head.

Not "Are you okay?" Not "We're coming to get you."

Just threats about banishing me from the pack.

Why was it that no matter how hard I tried, I still couldn't earn even a sliver of their approval? When I was rejected by my mate and dying from the pain, all my parents could think about was the pack alliance and my fucking sister who had disappeared God knows where!

Beatrice never had to do anything, yet she was their precious jewel.

So, this is it?

On the day I severed the mate bond with my fated mate, I finally realized that my parents had never loved me.

It shattered my last remaining, pathetic and pitiful longing for my parents' love.

Enough.

I was done trying to earn love that would never be given.

I was done being the convenient backup daughter.

I was taking back the self-respect I'd lost long ago, and I was breaking free of this engagement—no matter the consequences.